Sisi invite fills critical foreign policy gap
The invitation to Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the chief guest at this week’s Republic Day parade fills a glaring shortcoming in India’s external affairs that has existed since the Constitution came into force in 1950. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved an inter-ministerial recommendation a few months ago, to invite Egypt’s president for the first time on January 26 this year, it was a move that India’s Egyptologists have been hankering after for many decades. Egypt’s numerous Indophiles have been similarly working since the 1980s to close the gap in Cairo’s fraternal ties with New Delhi, which developed after Gamal Abdel Nasser’s death.
Both these well-meaning lobbies have been innovative in keeping alive the spirit of a lost golden age in bilateral relations between India and Egypt. An India lobby is omnipresent in the largest country in the Arab world: many Indian visitors to Egypt— be it Cairo, Luxor or Aswan—have had the entertaining experience of being accosted by young Egyptians on the street singing songs from Raj Kapoor films like Awaara and Shree 420. As decades passed, Egyptians switched from the lyrics of Awaara to “Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana sanam” from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. India’s soft power in the country of 110 million people remains undiminished just like in the remote corners of the former Soviet Union, especially the now independent ‘...stans’ of Central Asia.
During the decades when India was the flavour in Egypt, an Indian tea room, which was attached to the Centre for Indian Culture and Library, was a favourite haunt for university students in Cairo. Much romance blossomed over samosas and endless cups of tea at the bistro, which was afforable for those students. It is the stuff of enduring Cairo legends of modern times that such liaisons led to hundreds of marriages among young people before this popular rendezvous location closed. It is understated in the understanding of mutual engagement between India and Egypt that the way to the hearts of their peoples is through their stomachs. Exactly six months ago, famed Egyptian chef Ahmed Ragab titillated the palates of gourmands in the national capital by curating recipes from his country dating back thousands of years. Adding cultural spice and special flavour to the dinners that Ragab served up with the support of Egypt’s embassy in New Delhi were Tanoura dancers flown in from Cairo. The whirling dance is unique to Sufism and has caught on even in the West but has been slow to spread in India.
For 40 years, until 2013, rich and powerful Indians visiting Cairo routinely used influence with the Oberoi hotel chain’s Indian head office to get table reservations for dinner or high tea at the iconic Mena House Oberoi at the foot of the pyramids. A history masterclass tour of the hotel—whose famous guests included Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, crime fiction writer Agatha Christie, singer Frank Sinatra, one of the founders of American cinema Cecil B DeMille, “Tramp” Charlie Chaplin and wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill—had long waiting lists and had to be booked months ahead during the tourist season. After the Aswan High Dam was completed with Soviet assistance in 1970, drastically changing the life and economy of Egypt, the go-to place in Aswan was the Oberoi hotel in that city. Such fertile instances of all-round interactions between India and Egypt, which were abundant in the early decades of 75 years of bilateral diplomatic relations, have subsequently declined. Hopefully, the Egyptian presidents’ three-day visit culminating in the special occasion of the Republic Day parade, will start the process of restoring vitality to relations between New Delhi and Cairo.
Defence cooperation is one new area of focus that will emerge from Sisi’s meetings in India. As these lines are being written, the first-ever joint exercise between Special Forces of the Indian and Egyptian armies is underway in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer. Both countries have been separately having extensive military exercises with their respective defence partners, but none with each other on the scale of the ongoing ‘Exercise Cyclone-1’. So, this is an opportunity for both armies to gain valuable insights into the culture and ethos of each other, especially in interoperability of personnel and equipment.
The two Air Forces, on the other hand, have held joint tactical exercises. The participation of a military contingent from the Egyptian Army in the Republic Day parade, marching along with the Indian Armed Forces, watched by their respective Commanders-in-Chief, will send a powerful message for future interlinkages. The grapevine has lately been rife with talk that Egypt may buy Indian-made fighter jets and light attack helicopters. It is important to ensure that an emerging defence relationship does not fall into the trap of becoming transactional, which could have a negative fallout given the inherent perils of lucrative military sales.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh have made back-to-back visits to Cairo in the run up to the invitation to Sisi. Jaishankar has also been in telephone conversations with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry since the two ministers met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last September, when Shoukry conveyed Egypt’s agreement to be this year’s chief guest for Republic Day.
Such detailed preparations became necessary for two reasons. First, India has not had any chief guest for Republic Day functions since Brazil’s then president, Jair Bolsonaro, was given that honour three years ago. The Covid-19 pandemic put paid to such a practice. The arrival of Sisi is, therefore, a restart after pause, for Indian protocol. Second, with most incoming chief guests for the occasion, India has been engaged in business as usual. Not so with Egypt. This offers opportunities as well as challenges.
Air connectivity and tourism are areas which have been lagging. A meeting between Sisi and the Indian business community in New Delhi may provide a shot in the arm for these sectors where both countries have immense potential, but were neglected as newer tourist destinations like Dubai and the Maldives became available for both Indians and Egyptians. Sisi is set to return to India to attend the G20 summit later this year, when he and Modi will review progress in rejuvenating relations.
K P Nayar
Strategic analyst